Landlord defends complex sued by city

Oceanside  A Crown Heights property manager who has been sued by the city of Oceanside for allegedly violating building codes said he’s making many of the improvements the city has required to his sprawling apartment complex, but is balking at others because he sees no need for them.

Donald Swanson said the lawsuit has wrongly characterized his complex at 415 Grant Street as a hub of criminal activity and in serious disrepair.

“To read it, I’m some slumlord that hasn’t spent a penny on the property,” Swanson said. “The city attorney is taking someone who is trying to make a positive change in the community and they’re suing him.”

City Attorney John Mullen said the lawsuit and crime statistics speak for themselves and declined to discuss the city’s problems with the complex or Swanson’s objections.

“We’re going to address that in court. I’m not going to say any more publicly,” Mullen said. “The statistics speak for themselves. There’s 350 (police) calls for service in the past year since he’s had it.”

Crown Heights is bounded by Mission Avenue to the north, Interstate 5 to the east, Missouri Street to the south and Horne Street to the west.

Since March, there have been four shootings, one deadly, and a 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death Jan. 29 at the corner of Center Avenue and Division Street.

Swanson’s apartment complex is at the center of the neighborhood, with eight two-story apartment buildings and two parking lots that stretch from Grant Street to Weitzel Street.

All but one of the 84 apartments have one bedroom and one bathroom and most rent for $875 a month, Swanson said.

Swanson said that he’s had a lease on the property, known as Villa Del Rey, since last March and has spent around $100,000 on repairs.

He said he plans to buy Villa Del Rey and that under the terms of the lease he’s responsible for its maintenance and making any repairs.

Swanson owns Swanson Real Estate Inc. in San Clemente. He said M&L Financial Company in Los Angeles owns the Grant Street apartment complex.

In a lawsuit filed against Swanson and M&L Financial Feb. 7, the city said the complex has been a haven for street gangs and a source of some of the crime and violence that have plagued Crown Heights.

Since April 2012, code enforcement officials have targeted the complex. During a June check, inspectors found broken smoke detectors, cockroach and mice infestation, leaks, clogged drains, faulty wiring, broken windows and deteriorated flooring and cabinets, according to the lawsuit.

The city, in its lawsuit, said the Grant Street apartment complex “has been a haven for rampant criminal activity and criminal gang activity.”

In 2012, police responded to 350 calls for service at the complex, according to the lawsuit.

Swanson said many of those calls were not for crimes committed on his property and were part of a police investigation into crimes that happened elsewhere.

Standing on Grant Street in front of the apartments, Swanson said the city needs to do more for the community.

“We’d like some help,” he said.

For example, Swanson said, there are only three streetlights on the block of his complex and one of those was burned out until recently.

“That is not acceptable,” he said.

Better street lighting would be a far better deterrent to crime than anything he can do, Swanson said. He said police do a good job but wonders whether they have sufficient resources.

Before the city filed the lawsuit, Swanson said he met with city officials and agreed to fix a lengthy list of problems that they cited at the complex.

“I’ve been working with the city nonstop,” he said.

Among other things, Swanson said he is gradually replacing every apartment window in the complex and renovates each apartment when a tenant moves out, installing tile flooring and new carpeting in most.

He said he has installed electronic gates to pedestrian and parking lot entrances that operate on key cards similar to credit cards, installed new outdoor lights throughout the complex, repaired damaged eaves and evicted problem tenants who either didn’t pay their rent or annoyed their neighbors.

“We’ve turned about 45 of the 85 units since I took over,” Swanson said. “There’s nobody in a gang that lives here. There used to be.”

Swanson said he also has instituted a process to screen prospective new tenants, although he declined to elaborate.

City officials and neighborhood advocates have said more rigorous screening procedures have been effective in cutting crime in other communities.

At the Grant Street apartments, one sore spot with the city is a deteriorating wood fence that separates the complex from its neighbors.

City officials said criminals fleeing police use the apartment complex as an escape route, kicking out the wooden boards in the fence to scatter into neighboring yards.

“They just peel right through those fences and it becomes access routes in and out,” police Capt. Ray Bechler said.

Swanson said the city wants him to replace the wooden fence with a 516-foot-long concrete block wall. He said the wall would be too expensive and is unneeded.

He said he replaces boards that have been removed from the wooden fences and if people see that they’re regularly replaced, they don’t keep kicking them in.

“I don’t see how building a fence is going to reduce crime,” Swanson said.

Bechler said a wall would make it harder for criminals to escape and easier for police to catch them.

The city in the lawsuit also wants a judge to order Swanson to install security cameras and hire security guards.

Again, Swanson said he doesn’t see how security cameras and security guards will cut crime.

He has posted a sign on the front gate to the complex saying there are security cameras in place, but there are none.

“We’re testing the sign to see what kind of feedback we get from the tenants,” Swanson said. He said he probably won’t install cameras and has told the city he’s not hiring security guards.

Bechler said cameras can give police important leads when residents are too afraid to talk.

“They become critical pieces of information,” he said.

Similarly, Bechler said the presence of security guards can encourage people to work with police.

Swanson also said he has rejected a city demand that he repave the parking lots.

“We’ll patch as needed,” he said.

Swanson said the city is blaming him for things that happened at 415 Grant St. long before he took over.

“There was a time when this property was a lot worse off than it is today,” he said.